Ziina wins UAE central bank licenses for payments and exchange

Ziina, the UAE-based consumer and business finance platform, has received a Retail Payment Services Category III license and authorization for Exchange Business Category IV activities from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). According to the company, it is the first homegrown UAE fintech to hold regulatory authorizations covering all three activities.

The approvals complete Ziina's latest phase of licensing with the regulator. Together they let the company widen the services it offers to consumers and merchants on a single platform, from receiving and holding money to spending, domestic payments and international transfers.

What the licenses cover

Ziina first obtained its Stored Value Facility license in June 2024, which allowed it to launch a digital wallet. The new Category III retail payment license adds merchant acquiring, payment aggregation and domestic fund transfers. It also gives full regulatory cover to Ziina's merchant products: payment links, QR payments, Tap to Pay and its online payment gateway.

In August 2026, the CBUAE separately authorized Ziina to carry out Exchange Business Category IV activities under the existing wallet license. That extends the company's regulated scope to international money transfers through digital channels, including directly in the Ziina app.

Scale and ambition

The company says it now serves more than 500,000 customers annually, processes more than $1.5 billion in annualized payment volume and is used by one in 10 UAE SMEs.

Co-founder and CEO Faisal Toukan said the licenses give Ziina the regulatory framework to build faster, and that bringing more financial services into one place gives people more control over their money. He said the ambition is to take what the company builds in the UAE to the wider Arab world.

The market backdrop is strong. The CBUAE's Annual Report 2025 shows retail transfers through the UAE Funds Transfer System reached AED 9.9 trillion across 114.9 million transactions in 2025, with value up 19.9% and volume up 17.8% year on year. Ziina says it is investing in products, technology and infrastructure to put more financial services on one platform, starting in the UAE and then expanding regionally.